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POPSPollution From Yard Runoff May Be Worse Than Thought Western Australia was supposed to be banning soluble fertilizers for everyone. (Can't work out how they get to the plant if not soluble, but........) No nitrates. The algae in rivers had been cut when councils stopped using the soluble stuff to green up river banks. Ants are a problem everywhere. Invent safer poisons.
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POPS The Ethanol Bubble Bursts In Iowa
To meet this political demand, VeraSun, Pacific Ethanol, Aventine Renewable Energy and others rushed to build ethanol mills. The industry produced just four billion gallons of ethanol in 2005, so it had to add a lot of capacity in a short period of time. Three years ago, ethanol producers made $2.30 per gallon. But with the global economic slowdown, along with a glut of ethanol on the market, by the end of 2008 ethanol producers were making a mere 25 cents per gallon. That drop forced Dyersville and other facilities to be shuttered. The industry cut more than 20% of its capacity in a few months last year. What's more, as ethanol producers sucked in a vast amount of corn, prices of milk, eggs and other foods soared. The price of corn shot up, as did the price of products from animals -- chickens and cows -- that eat feed corn. Texas Gov. Rick Perry reacted by standing with the cattlemen in his state to ask the Environmental Protection Agency last year to suspend part of
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POPSOceans are Dying Dead Oceanic Regions are on the increase. Fertilizers and Run-Off pollution from the air and rain major culprits.
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POPSOceans running low on oxygen These dead zones occur when fertilizer runoff dumps excess nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorous, into coastal waters, providing food for algae. When these microscopic plants die and sink to the ocean bottom, bacteria feed on them and subsequently consume all the oxygen dissolved in the water. This leaves fish and other bottom-dwelling sea creatures without enough oxygen to survive, causing mass die-offs and displacements. Typically, the researchers noted, these events aren't noticed until they threaten valuable fish stocks.
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POPSBIOFUELS – A MAN MADE DISASTER BIOFUEL DISASTER_THANK CONGRESS AND GREENIES! Contrary to popular belief, the production of biofuels is extremely unfriendly to the environment. The increased use of fertilizer needed in the growing corn crop has resulted in additional soil and water pollution. The National Academy of Sciences recently reported that the 15% food to fuel mandate will increase the size of the Gulf of Mexico dead zone by 10 to 19% as a result of water pollution caused by fertilizer runoff. The production of ethanol requires copious amounts of water, thereby draining local water tables. Congress never learns. Manipulating the market with subsidies and taxation can have disastrous, deadly results. If ethanol is such a great product, then it will thrive in the free market. How many people will have to starve before Congress and the do-gooder environmentalist lobby admit that our biofuel policy is a complete disaster and a potential threat to our economy and global stability.
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POPSThe Poison Arrow: Corn-Based Ethanol The government seeks policy that stimulates industry, growth, wealth creation; corn production is near, easy, and most importantly: large-scale. Can we keep trying to fuel an ever-upward curve of consumption with fragile oil replacements like food crops? So far, the answer seems a resounding no. Meanwhile, we’re turning the Pacific into a garbage dump, and hoarding seeds for “doomsday”.
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POPSUrea 'climate solution' may backfire Similar to the idea of seeding the ocean with iron, the project is being seen as a way of generating 'carbon credits' Independent scientists have called for further research, however the biggest hurdle seen by the companies seems to be arranging the approval of various national governments. I remember W.C Fields mentioning something about not drinking water because of fish urine. It's a wonder they need more. There is also significant runoff from fertilizer containing nitrates, ending up in the ocean. The company says it is researching but wants to protect 'intellectual property' Natural upswellings of nitrogen have been known to produce toxic blooms, and nitrous oxide, a more powerful greenhouse gas than CO2
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